Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-11-13
LAMAR'S SUCCESSOR.
Small Chance that Villas Will Aceept-A
New Man will Probably Take the
Head Of the Interior Department.
What MIR, Villas has DoDo for the Foreign
Mail Servicc-Senator Kenna's Camera.
A Professional shot.
.pec,.l correspondence of the Gazette.


offered the Interior Department port
folio, and I get the story from
source that seems above question.
It is likely enough to be true, for 1t is
known that Colonel Villas is faVorite OF
the President, as Mr.. Lamar is, who is
called to the Supreme court. But can
not believe that his transfer will really
take place.
In the first place he has made a
phenomenal record at the Postoffice De-
partment, there is no denying that
General Villas ranked with Montgomery
Blair and Cresswell, among the ablest
Postmaster Generals the country has had
for forty years.
Cresswell was poor Judge Of men and
was constantly blundering in his appoint
ments, but he initiated and carried
forward some notable improvements.
Blair did still better, for he had an
intuitive insight into men, as we'll IS a
large grasp of measures. 1t was under
his administration that the money-order
system was introduced.
Villas has studied hard and has become
acquainted with ell the working details
of the establishment. For this he Was
peculiarly well equipped as he has had
executive experience and understands
book keeping SO well that he can go into
bank and ascertain its condition as
quickly and as accurately as an expert
examiner.
At the top of the hydra headed Interior
Department Villas would be as beWildered
as Lamar has been. It Is place where
neither brains nor industry will count. 1t
is congeries of incongruous bureaus
and, Indians, pensions, patente-a pot
pourri of varied meddlesomeness; a sort
of clean and respe ctable elop-buCket for
executive fragments.
General Black doesn't want the burden
OF this medley, for he is doing business
aud "mAking hsy" hand over hand at the
pension office; and l shall not believe
that General Villas wants it till [ hear
that he has accepted.
Villas is by noameans figure head. He
mas well defined ambitions in the postof-
Ace One of these is to organize some
uniform method Of paying for rsilrosd
service, and the other is to straighten
out the clerk-hire question, and establish
q rule to govern it. Both of these i'm
portant matters are row helter-skelter,
settled according to no system, but mere
" by caprice, guess work and favor.
MY notion is that Villas and Black want
to stay exactly where they are, and that
the President will FL the vacancy which
LamSr's elevation 10 the Supreme bench
makes by calling the Assistant Secretary
to ''come up higher"
TIE successor to Mr.. Lsmar Is still
under mask. It is deeply and widely felt
that he ought to be some new man, brought
in from some doubtful or st least con-
testible state, like Indiana or Illinois, for
that would enable the President to make
kudos for himself without disturbing the
estab ished order. Neither General Villas
nor General Black can afford to take the
Interior portfolio, and if either of them
does take it, it will be virtually by the
Presidents commands.
General Villas, by the way, has abund-
ant cause for self-congrstulation in the
success Of his measures for the ocean
mails. 1t Will be remembered what ire
mendOus and noisy protest there was two
years ago when he refused to subsidize
particular lines of steamers and persisted
in the plan of sending the oceanic mails
by the first and fastest ships going. &
very hurricane was around his ears for q
time and it was declared thSt the postal
system WAS crippled and even paralyzad.
The answer came to the Postmaster
General on Saturday, in the shape Of
letter, which certainly may be ssid to be
g settler. It is signed by Drexel, Nor
gan & Co, WinsloW, Lanier & Co, Ru-
fus Hatch, Brown Brothers, August Bel
mont, Moore & Schley, end 200 or 800
of the wealthlest and busiest bankers,
merchants and importers Of New York
City, thanking the Pcs,master-General
for the excellence Of the interna-
tional service he has established,
assuring him that it is the most
satisfactory they have ever known,
and asking him to try and induce other
nations to adopt the plan that the United
States now follows. This expression is
signed by men representing nearly
thousand million dollars. The request
for the re.orm of foreigners has been
turned over to Mr.. 3syard, Wao in turn,
will shortly take measures to bring it to
the notice of the postal authorities Of
Europe with the suggestion that they con-
form. General Villas method is simply
to send the mails by any vessel going
irst, without reference to nationality.
COckrell, the tall Senator from Mis-
souri,, has gone into business as the pre-
server Of the war muster-rolls. In
sWooping around the War Department
the other day he came upon the rooms
where are stored the muster-rolls OF all
the regiments and battalions in our civil
war, and he was astounded to find that
they were so badly worn out that they
were dropping to pieces. Not less than
six rolls on an average OF every Union
company in the war are stored there-not
far, suppose, from million rolls in all.
They are in constant requisltlon
by General Blacks clerks who are
searching for facts on which to
decide pension claim, and the}
have been so constantly handled that they
are dropping apart where they
have been folded, and are
in part already undecipberaole.
They are in worse condition than the
original rolls of the revolution, and
threaten to disappear altogether.
In this extremity Senator Cockreu has
suggested that tough and transparent
tissue paper be pasted over sll the rolls,
for the purpose of protecting them with
out obscuripg the text. General Drum
has approved the measure, and the great
work has already begun. 1t will take
months to accomplish II, and perhaps
wears, for the clerks OF the War Depart
ment are VIGOROUSLY the slowest and
least efficient of any in the service.
A party of five has gone to Havre &c
Grsce, st the mouth Of the Susquehsnns,
duck shooting. Admiral Porter came
back last night, and brought the news
sr%r